Sixers’ Embiid out for rest of the season
MRI shows torn meniscus more serious than earlier scans revealed
“Our primary objective and focus remains to protect his long-term health and ability to perform on the basketball court.” – Sixers’ president Bryan Colangelo said in a statement
A knee injury originally believed so minor that Joel Embiid would play on it seven days later has officially cost the 76ers’ center the remainder of the season.
An MRI taken on Embiid’s left knee Monday showed that a torn meniscus was more serious than earlier scans revealed. For that, he was downgraded from “out indefinitely” to “out for the season,” the Sixers said Wednesday.
Embiid sustained the knee injury Jan. 20 in a victory over Portland. That caused him to miss three games before his Jan. 27 return against Houston, when he scored 32 points. He has not played since.
The Sixers originally said Embiid’s knee was bruised. He quickly volunteered that it was “hyperextended.” Later, the team described the injury to a bone bruise, which typically puts a patient at a greater risk of a fracture. Eventually, the Sixers shared that earlier scans revealed a slightly torn meniscus.
By Wednesday, Embiid’s once-dynamic rookie season was over.
“The assessment of Monday’s follow-up MRI of Joel Embiid’s left knee appears to reveal that the area affected by the bone bruise has improved significantly, while the previously identified meniscus tear appears more pronounced in this most recent scan,” said Dr. Jonathan Glashow, in a statement from the Sixers. “We will continue to work with leading specialists to gather additional information through clinical examination and sequential testing to determine the best course of action and next steps.”
Glashow is the Sixers’ chief medical director and co-chief of sports medicine orthopedics at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.
The Sixers, in a press release,
added, “Embiid’s status is changed from out indefinitely to out for the remainder of this season.”
With that, Embiid has completed a season in which he was an earlier AllStar candidate, yet was limited to 31 games, all with a minutes-restriction of 28 or fewer minutes, as ordered by the team’s sports science department. He averaged 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.45 blocked shots.
Embiid was drafted with the No. 3 pick in the first round of the 2014 draft, then missed two full seasons due to a foot fracture.
“Our primary objective and focus remains to protect his long-term health and ability to perform on the basketball court,” president Bryan Colangelo said, in a statement released by the Sixers. “As our medical team and performance staff continue their diligence in the evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation of Joel’s injury, we will provide any pertinent updates when available.”
Through the recovery process, Colangelo has insisted that Embiid would not require surgery to repair the meniscus tear.
“I’ve been told that it’s not the cause of any symptoms that he is having or that are ongoing,” Colangelo said Monday. “But I was told again that it was a non-acute injury, that it was a minor tear, and that it is not related. But I don’t rule anything out with injuries. It could be that it is not acting up now but could act up at a later date.
“We’ve said often that a lot of players in the league are playing with similar conditions or worse and are asymptomatic of maybe not even aware of it. So that’s where we are.”
A back injury limited Embiid to 28 games in his only college basketball season at Kansas. Including that season, he has played a total of 59 games in four years.
The Sixers were in Miami Wednesday to play the Heat.